This invention relates to a mount for a camera in a vehicle which allows a moving picture to be taken through a window of the vehicle to show the exterior surroundings as they would be seen by a vehicle passenger. It has been observed that vehicle passengers tend to generally maintain their visual attitude oriented level to the apparent horizon. When a vehicle on level ground is subjected to horizontal accelerations such as cornering or braking, an occupant will lean his torso and/or head to maintain his level visual orientation. Moreover, when the vehicle is going uphill or downhill, the occupant tends to allow his body to rotate with the vehicle only sufficiently to maintain a visual orientation level relative to the horizon. A camera mount for a realistic moving picture of a vehicle occupant's view must operate in the same manner.
One prior art method of mounting a camera in a vehicle provides a platform fixed to the vehicle sprung mass. This mount, however, restrains the camera to rotate with the vehicle sprung mass at all times. Thus, through vehicle accelerations such as cornering and braking, the camera will tilt with respect to the road surface. On hills, the camera will over-rotate with the vehicle sprung mass due to gravitationally produced rotation and thus tilt forward or backward with respect to the road surface. In both cases the camera will produce a moving picture unrealistic in appearance, since it does not correspond to the behavior of most vehicle occupants during such maneuvers. Other prior art camera mounting methods attempt to solve this problem with a gyroscopic mount or an unrestrained pendulum mount, which have the potential, if properly designed, for maintaining the camera attitude level with respect to the horizontal during vehicle sprung mass rotations. However, they always maintain the camera angle horizontal, even as the vehicle goes up and down hill, which does not correspond to the behavior of most vehicle occupants.